A healthy riff on the French Crepe, American Pancake and the Indian Dosa
By Ashok Vasudevan
Serves 4 | Prep time: 10 | Cook time: 15
Ingredients:
- 1 cup Oatmeal
- 1/2 cup Cream of Wheat
- 1/2 cup Urad Dal flour
- 1/2 cup Ragi flour (or flour of millet or quinoa)
- 1/4 cup Rice flour
- 8 oz. buttermilk
- 4 teaspoons Olive oil
- Salt
- 1 pinch Hing (Asafoetida)
Preparation:
- Lightly roast Oatmeal in a non-stick saucepan. You don't need to add oil or butter. Grind to a fine powder and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
- Mix Cream of Wheat, Urad Dal flour, Ragi flour and Rice flour in the bowl (you can find these in any Indian store). Add salt and Hing. Now add buttermilk and whisk together to form a smooth batter. Make sure there are no lumps. The final consistency of the batter should be such that it lightly coats a spoon dipped in it.
- Set aside for 5 minutes.
- You are now ready to make dosas or rice crepes. What you call it, depends purely on your politics!
- Take Olive oil in a small bowl and keep ready by the stove. You will also need a large, flat nonstick pan, 1 sheet of paper towel, a ladle, a teaspoon, and a spatula.
- Make a wad of the paper towel and dip lightly into the bowl of olive oil. Gently rub the paper towel over the surface of the pan to grease. The correct amount of oil is such that it is barely visible on the pan. Now turn on the heat/ flame at medium-high. The test pan is hot by lightly sprinkling water on the pan. It should sizzle.
- Fill the ladle level with batter. Gently pour this batter onto the center of the pan and quickly and smoothly spread the batter in a widening circular motion starting from the center and moving out to form a thin crepe of roughly 6-8" diameter.
- As soon as you have finished spreading the batter on the pan, take a half teaspoon of oil and dribble around the diameter of the crepe. If needed, lift pan by its handle and swirl it so the oil spreads evenly around the crepe.
- Wait for about 2 minutes. The upper surface will look cooked and will no longer be soft or runny. Use the spatula and carefully flip the crepe. Don't be anxious if the first one does not flip easily or if the bottom is not evenly colored. This is normal and will get better with the second crepe onwards as the pan gets evenly heated.
- Allow to cook for 1 minute after flipping.
- You are almost done. Fold it in half and allow to cook for 30 seconds more.
- Serve them hot straight from the pan or make a batch and keep them stacked warm in a closed dish.
- Serve the dosa/crepe with side dishes like coconut chutney, gunpowder chutney, sambar, or even Pico de Gallo.
- Before you start a new crepe, reduce the heat and use the paper towel wad to brush oil lightly as before. This will ensure the batter will spread evenly and the color will be a uniform brown.
- You will probably make 8-12 dosas depending on the diameter.
